Initial army bonuses?

[serata]

I've noticed on the few games I've played and am playing that there are never any initial placement bonuses, just three on each country and (usually) three at the beginning of each turn, which seems to change the strategy of risk. Is this just the most popular way to play, or is there no way to play a classic game of risk with initial bonus?

[lancehoch]

It depends upon the map and the drop. People could have Australia/South America when they start the game (drop). Some maps, like Age of Realms, you get 5 or 3 or 3 armies extra every turn for your castle.

[BaldAdonis]

It's easier to start a game by randomly assigning territories, and then putting 3 on each one. 3 stops people from getting 3 dice to attack in every place on their first turn, but is enough to defend with reasonably well. If players had to wait through 20 rounds of deployment while each person put down their initial armies, then a lot more people would stop showing up to play.

If you've played any of the speed variations on Risk, they're mostly run like this (random territories to start + standard initial values across the board). It does change strategies from what you might play at home, where you can block someone with 3/4 of Aus (for example) by putting a lot of your armies there to start, but as the game progresses, the same sort of long term strategies you're used to will come into play.

[serata]

It's easier to start a game by randomly assigning territories, and then putting 3 on each one. 3 stops people from getting 3 dice to attack in every place on their first turn, but is enough to defend with reasonably well. If players had to wait through 20 rounds of deployment while each person put down their initial armies, then a lot more people would stop showing up to play.

That seems reasonable, but I'm curious why they don't have an initial drop system w/ private initial placement (placing all armies at once invisibly) so you wouldn't have to wait 20 turns and still get to plan a custom strategy. The problem with that of course is you end up with everyone fighting over AU, but I've played some internet games with those drop rules and they work fine.

[BaldAdonis]

It's been suggested, never picked up though, because it was tied to a "one-at-a-time" deployment set up. You could suggest it again, check out viewforum.php?f=4